EXCITING FINISH TO SUPER SEDAN RUMBLE AS BLACK SCORES NARROW VICTORY

Sunday, February 18, 2018 | lismorespeedway

EXCITING FINISH TO SUPER SEDAN RUMBLE AS BLACK SCORES NARROW VICTORY
BY DENNIS NEWLYN
SEAN Black regained the lead over Justin Randall in the latter stages and raced to a thrilling victory in the Trevan Ford 40-lap Super Sedan Rumble at Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway Saturday night, February 17.
There was little between the two cars as they crossed the finish while third pladegetter Gavin Northfield was not far behind in third.
Despite a high attrition rate as other fancied contenders Wayne Randall, Darren Kane and Ian Brims failed to finish, the race had a bit of everything with lead changes and some keenly contested battles for positions further back in the field.
Pascoe led at the start and in the first lap Justin Randall showed his intentions as he got underneath Pascoe, with Brims and Kyall Fisher also battling for the front running in an intense start to the race.
Wayne Randall had a suspension failure and crashed into the concrete retaining wall on the next lap.
At the restart Black got under Kane and moved up another spot. Grant Shaw, who started out of position 11, made up a lot of ground as he ran closely with Ed Doherty. Shaw’s progress through the field ended with a flat tyre on lap seven. At that same time in the race Kane spun and the punctured tyre almost came completely off the rim as his race was run.
By this stage Justin Randall was the leader but another pre-race favourite was sidelined after Pascoe quit and later claimed stripped diff gears as the reason for his withdrawal.
Now Ian Brims emerged as a likely winner when he raced to the lead over Randall.
Brims then opened up a good advantage. Black was also impressive as he made a move on Northfield while further back Bob McCosker passed Fisher as the top runners battled for positions in a race that looked destined to go right to the wire with a number of drivers still in contention.
Then Brims quit the race as his car went off song with 19 laps to go. As the remaining laps unfolded Northfield and Black started to catch Randall and Black went around the outside of Northfield and moved up onto Randall’s car, setting the stage for an exciting finish with nine laps remaining as Black then shot to the lead.
Then Randell regained the front running with five to go before Black once again commanded the top spot in the field on the very last lap to bring the flag down on a great contest.
Randell followed closely in second, while Northfield was third and the top five were rounded out by McCosker and Fisher as the only drivers who finished on the same lap.
Black’s best lap was clocked at a speed of 99.547 km/h, however the fastest lap was set at mid-distance by Ian Brims with a time of 14.284 seconds at 100.812 km/h.
Earlier in the night Kane raced to two heat wins, while McCosker, Pascoe, Black and Brims were other preliminary race winners.
The Wingless Sprintcar feature race was highlighted with a battle at the head of the field between ultimate winner Trent Martin and runner-up David Eggins, while Rob Hamilton was third.